People who’ve had a book published — non-fiction or fiction — used to belong to an exclusive club. Before Amazon.com, even before large brick-and-mortar chain booksellers, bookstore shelves were finite (and mostly found in malls).

Publishing houses (mostly based in Manhattan) selected elite writers — the best of the best — printed their books and worked with the authors to do marketing and promotions, as well as making sure those titles found their way to those precious bookstore shelves, into the hands of New York Times reviewers, and, ultimately, to the book-reading public.

If you publish your book through a traditional publisher, it still works that way — sort of. Today’s publishing houses expect today’s writers to do more of their own promotions and marketing, and to have a platform in place before the book even sees print.

But, more options exist than ever before to publish your book. Options for publishing include:

• Traditional print publishing
• ePublishing through an eBook publisher
• Self-publishing an eBook
• Self-publishing a print book

You can also combine these, offering an eBook version and a print version, either traditionally published or self-published.

Let’s look at some of the options for each, as well as the benefits and drawbacks.

Traditional publishing

A traditional publisher still has greater prestige, although that’s changing. You’ll get a team of marketing and publishing experts backing you up, along with a professionally-produced book cover and someone else to handle distribution. It’s not easy for first-time authors to get their book published through a traditional publisher, but I would never tell anyone it can’t be done. Make sure you have a platform established, write a killer proposal, and be prepared to market the title yourself — and, of course, have a great idea and quality manuscript. The best place to find a conventional publisher is still The Writer’s Market. Small press publishers are often more open to new authors than larger publishing houses.

ePublishing through an eBook publisher

Want a green solution to book publishing and distribution? eBooks are the way to go. The growing popularity of eBook readers such as Kindle makes eBooks a viable option to really rack up book sales. When you work with an eBook publisher, you’ll have the benefits of working with a professional editor, professionally-produced cover art, and sales and marketing support. You won’t earn 100% of the profits, but you may get an advance. To learn more, read our interview with Editor Julie Fletcher at Keith Publications, a new eBook publisher.

Self-publishing an eBook

When you self-publish an eBook, you get to keep 100% of the money you make, but everything falls on your shoulders. You’ll want to hire an editor (or at least a proofreader) to make sure your manuscript is picture perfect. You’ll need to commission people to create cover art, which could include a photographer and a graphic designer.

On the other hand, you get complete control over every aspect of your book, which is important to many authors.

If you’re going to self-publish an eBook, I suggest working with a company like Clickbank or e-Junkie. These companies are like giant malls with thousands of store owners looking to put your eBook on their shelves. Every time a reseller sells your book with their Clickbank or e-Junkie hoplink you’ll earn a commission.

You can sell your book independently, too, earning 100% on each copy you sell on your own. By joining Clickbank or e-Junkie and selling your eBook through the site, you also gain permission to sell products written by other authors, earning up to 75% on the sale of every eBook.

Self-publishing a print book

Similar benefits and drawbacks exist when self-publishing a printed version version of your book rather than an electronic version — and then you have to add the costs of printing.

Most self-publishers choose to use a print-on-demand method as these smaller print runs create lower upfront costs. The price per copy of your book may be higher than mass-produced alternatives but the risk is reduced. You won’t enjoy the advance you might get with a traditional publisher and, depending on the self-publisher you select, may or may not get marketing assistance. iUniverse offers several tiers of service, from full marketing support to simple print-on-demand services.

A lot of unscrupulous companies exist in the pay-to-publish market (such as the infamous PublishAmerica). Do your research before signing on with a company.
The website Preditors & Editors, a watchdog site for writers, is a good place to start.

You can see there are a lot of options available for publishing — far too many to cover comprehensively in one blog post. If you have a book in the works, I hope this article has gotten you thinking about the many options available so you can continue the research on your own and select the best method (or methods) to get your book in the hands of eager readers.

Do you have any tips to share about choosing a publishing method? Which option are you thinking of using when publishing next book?